It seemed a highly dubious vanity project at the time: a
tough-talking, squish-hearted, low-budget boxing movie, written by and
starring an unknown actor. But Rocky became a surprise hit as well as a
franchise; Sylvester Stallone became a genuine star; "Yo,
Adrian" became a catchphrase; and the movie won the 1976 Best
Picture Oscar.

Still, despite Rocky's history of upending expectations,
Broadway was leery when Stallone began shopping around the idea of a
musical version. Over time, he enlisted Tony winner Thomas Meehan (The
Producers) to work with him on the book, Tony winners Lynn Ahrens and
Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime) to do the score and Tony nominee Alex Timbers
(Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) to direct. Then Kelly Devine (Rock of
Ages) and Tony nominee Steven Hoggett (Once) came on board to
choreograph.

They had their doubts about Rocky: The Musical as well. "There
was a healthy amount of skepticism," says Hoggett, who is in charge
of the boxing sequences. "I say 'healthy' because in
order to really think about the practicalities, you have to overcome a
certain sense of it once being an iconic film, and look beyond
that." Devine, who's creating the dance scenes, had similar
concerns, wondering how the movie's famous training montage could
be evoked theatrically. But the stage's limitations, Hoggett notes,
also provide occasions for creativity. "The skepticism," he
says, "very quickly resolves into a sense of opportunity."

The musical, which opens on Broadway this month after its 2012
premiere in Germany, is rooted almost entirely in naturalistic movement:
There are only two out-and-out dance numbers, and in the boxing scenes,
real punches are thrown. The two choreographers agreed at the outset
that "it was really important to make the world of Rocky gritty and
authentic," Devine says. They wanted nothing that would suggest
"dancing boxers" in a traditional musical. The goal, she says,
was to take "these professional dancers that are trained in all
areas and make them feel like legitimate, serious boxers."

As it happens, Devine and Hoggett both came to the project with
some boxing know-how. In Los Angeles, she had taken to kick-boxing as
exercise after an offer of free lessons came her way. In Britain, he had
immersed himself in the sport for the play Beautiful Burnout, a boxing
story co-produced by the National Theatre of Scotland and his own
physical theater troupe, Frantic Assembly.

But they were coming at Rocky from different sides of the Atlantic,
with differing professional backgrounds. Still, Hoggett says,
"We've formed a kind of symbiotic relationship." In fact,
if you ask them what they find most challenging in the show, Devine
talks about the demands of Hoggett's climactic boxing match, in
which audience members come onstage to watch underdog Rocky Balboa take
on flamboyant champ Apollo Creed; and Hoggett cites Devine's work
on the training sequences and "Patriotic," the flag-waving
production number in which Apollo and his entourage display their
American bona tides.

"In asking the pair of us to work on the project,"
Hoggett says, "Alex was very smart. The scale is very big;
there's a huge spectrum of physicality and choreography and
movement. So it would be a very big job for just one person--possibly
too much." And two heads are always better than one, Devine adds.
"We can bounce things off each other. I can say, Tm stuck
here--does this look like garbage?'"

Meanwhile, the rehearsals, they agree, look more like boot camp
than dance class. "Steven puts the guys through a really rigorous
warm-up, with a lot of circuit training" Devine says. "Like
lifting a chair above your head for a minute," Hoggett explains,
"and then being in a pike position for a minute, and doing push-ups
in different hand-space relationships--the kind of stuff we picked up in
boxing gyms."

In treating the performers like athletes rather than dancers,
Devine and Hoggett are not just concerned with keeping the show true to
life. They're also thinking about Rocky's day-in, day-out
physical demands. "A boxer will train for ten weeks and fight
once," Hoggett says. "Our guys have to be fighting eight times
a week."

From Backstage

Ensemble: 18, plus six swings

Dance captain: James Brown III, who has been a performer (Memphis),
a dance captain (Ghost) and a fight captain (The Little Mermaid)

Fight captain: Vince Oddo, who worked with Hoggett on the national
tour of American Idiot

Specialties: "We needed quadruple threats, men who could act,
sing, dance and box," says Hoggett. "They had to be able to
pick up a choreographed phrase, learn it as you would choreography, but
then perform it as a boxing sequence--as if it were not
choreography."

Pre-show warm-up: "Sweat-heavy"

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